Henry Sperry’s Engine for Generational Change.
In the days after The Hartford Courant dubs the boys the “Wide Awakes,” they feverishly race to prepare for the 9-week gubernatorial campaign. Based out of the tiny studio apartment of one of the boys, they recruit friends from work and school to join their club. Mostly in their early 20s with a few teenagers, the Church boys beg big James Chalker to be their figurehead. But the overstretched young father sees the club as too much work and accepts only a title. The club agrees to pay Chalker for enough black cambric fabric to outfit every club member in the same intimidating black capes that three boys had made on the night of the Clay speech. One of these boys, who would go on to become an inventor, begins to create a custom marching torch for the club which he promises will never spill oil.